Neymar: I hope to reach Messi's level one day

The 20-year-old impressed with a magnificent hat-trick against Internacional earlier this week in the Libertadores, and dreams of reaching the Blaugrana attacker's level

Brazil international Neymar has stated there is no rivalry between him and Barcelona star Lionel Messi, and added that he dreams of reaching the same level as the 2011 Fifa Ballon d'Or winner.

The Santos attacker netted a hat-trick in his side's 3-1 Copa Libertadores win against Internacional shortly after Messi's quintet of goals against Bayer Leverkusen on Wednesday, but Neymar is not interested in comparisons with the Argentine.

"This so called rivalry between Messi and me does not exist. He is on another level. I have already said before that he is the best in the world. There's no doubt about that," Neymar was quoted as saying by ESPN.

"I consider myself to be a fan of Messi, and hope that he puts in many more performances like that. I am doing whatever I can to one day reach the same level. He is already in full swing, and I hope to achieve the same."